HYBRIDIZING THE WILD CRAB. 



275 



than the first; but as potatoes are bulky things to 

 ship and handle, I decided to try my hand at seeds, 

 for I had by this time got a good deal of notoriety 

 as an originator. 



I began in the spring of 1856 with lettuce, cab- 

 bage and squashes. I had no idea of getting a 

 new variety of lettuce when I set out. But I no- 

 ticed, when sowing my Brown Silesian that spring, 

 that some seeds were a little darker colored than 

 others. I had forgotten about this until my lettuce 

 began to bear, when I noticed that a few plants had 

 greener leaves than the others and the leaves were 

 curly. So I knew that the dark-colored seeds had 

 produced these plants. In the fall I sorted out all 

 the dark seeds from the lettuce patch, which was 

 an easy matter, for they were nearly all dark color- 

 ed. This new variety I called Choke's Superla- 

 tive Green and Brown Curl- Fringed Extra Early 

 Summer lettuce. It sold well, and I think that it 

 was superior to many of the best varieties of the 

 present day. 



In cabbages I built upon the Early York ; by se- 

 ledting the shortest plants and those with fewest 

 leaves, I was enabled, in two years, to send out 

 Choke's Superb Incomparable Dwarf. And by 

 hybridizing this with the Bergen Drumhead, which 

 was then just coming into favor, I secured a strain 

 of intermediate season, one which was admirably 

 adapted to any kind of soil or treatment. In fact, 

 they would grow under total neglect. These were 

 the hardiest cabbages I ever saw. Some may still 



remember these as Choke's Inexhaustible Sure-pop 

 Hardy. 



The S(|uashes are exceedingly amenable to treat- 

 ment, as the farina, or impregnating fluid, is scat- 

 tered by insects and wind, and one can get any 

 number of hybrids, etc., between all kmds of mel- 

 ons and pumpkins and squashes and cucumbers. I 

 sent out no less than a dozen grand new novelties 

 in less than three years. 



During all this time of scientific experimenting, I 

 lived in a small town where printing facilities were 

 not good. Early in the sixties I moved into Phila- 

 delphia, and there I found wonderful facilities for 

 carrying on my scientific work. Many gardeners 

 had been stimulated by my successes, and I was 

 enabled to buy any year, for a hundred or two dollars, 

 a number of new and valuable varieties. My best 

 hit was the enlargement of my single price-list into 

 a catalogue, and I soon added a colored plate. I 

 have always thought that the colored plate is the 

 most valuable aid we have in the scientific getting- 

 up of sorts. A number of the varieties which I in- 

 troduced in those early days are changed into other 

 kinds. I would particularly mention in this connec- 

 tion Choke's New Golden Butter Cream turnip, 

 Choke's Large Colossal Excelsior turnip-beet, and 

 Choke's Wonderful Twenty-Eight-Day cucumber. 



My only object in writing this and in drawing 

 some observations from my own experiments, is to 

 urge on the grand work of progress in the rising 

 generation. R. T. Choke. 



HYBRIDIZING THE WILD CRAB. 



The February number of The Ameru:an Garden 

 contains valuable suggestions in regard to the im- 

 provement of the wild crab of the northwest {Pyrus 

 coronaria) by A. W. Sias. In the spring of 1886, at 

 Ames, Iowa, blossoms of Pyrus coronaria were suc- 

 cesfuUy pollinateol with pollen of the Roman Stem 

 apple. Fruit set, but the seeds were mostly abor- 

 tive. The following year the same work was re- 

 peated with practically the same result. In 1888, 

 at the Iowa agricultural college, using the Soulard 

 as female parent, I pollenized about eighty blossoms 

 with eight varieties of the common apple, ten blos- 

 soms to each variety. Fully sixty per cent, set 

 fruit and yielded fertile seed. At the same time 

 parallel but less extensive experiments were in pro- 

 gress with the typical Pyrus coronaria, with results as 

 in former years. Of course this does not convince 



me that the wild species cannot be hybridized, as 

 in one case two or three seeds were obtained, but it 

 points to a wider divergence from the apple than in 

 the case of the Soulard. The difference in the blos- 

 soming period between the crab and the apple may 

 be overcome by obtaining pollen from other latitudes. 

 There is certainly a promising field, and one which 

 has been too much neglected by plant breeders thus 

 far. As Mr. Sias suggests, selectmg the largest and 

 best specimens of the natives is the first step, this to 

 be followed by hybridizing with Russians or other 

 hardy varieties. Mr. Patten's efforts have been so 

 successful as to commend this line of work to the 

 careful attention of all who are interested in raising 

 fruits to meet the requirements of the cold north. 



John Craig. 

 Central Experimental Eanii, Ottawa, Canada. 



